Year Two Day Sixty Five - Jean Paul Gaultier Exhibition

Dear all, 

Kerry and I had time today to go and visit the JEAN PAUL GAULTIER EXHIBITION that we discovered was being held at La Musee de Beaux Arts in Montreal (http://www.mbam.qc.ca/fr/index.html). We left the boys in the bar [**see next post] and made our way to the subway where we would embark on our first subterranean Quebecois journey. 

Montreal Metro is certainly one of the most glamorous I have ever ridden and Kerry and I got the hang very quickly, within minutes we were racing up and down escalators and jumping on trains. http://www.stm.info/english/metro/a-mapmet.htm

We arrived at 'Guy Concordia' subway stop, disembarked and followed the magic 'M's toward the Museum. It was an eclectic area, full of character and charm and clearly highly influenced by the two nearby Universities - McGill and Concordia. 

It wasn't long before we had found the museum and we were greeted by a fabulous billboard luring us in.. We were about to see Jean Paul!!!

http://www.jeanpaulgaultier.com/brand/fr#page-brand/

I was SO EXCITED! I am a major fan and couldn't believe we were about to see his work in the flesh. 

In order to find the exhibition, (and to our delight) we were sent high and low throughout the exhibition. We finally arrived and were not disappoint - it was fantastic! We were greeted by a line up of mannequin, all with a moving, interactive holographic image projected on there faces. These Mannequins were talking to us! 

The clothes were, of course, divine and the exhibition tracked Gaultier's trajectory from student to major international superstar! There was even a model of Jean Paul (a fully interactive and talking model) to greet us in the entrance hall!

The exhibition highlighted the various trends seen through Gautier's career - from Punk to Haute Couture Chic, we saw it all in its resplendent glory. Jean Paul has been heralded as controversial at times but his work is equisite and has a large following including the likes of Madonna (who can forget that corset she wore for the Blond Ambition Tour in 1990 - Cone Bra et al! http://www.ultimatemadonna.com/blondambition/

We were allowed a sneak peak into so many aspects of the Master's work, including hundreds of prints, sketches, videos and commentary. When it finally ended, we meandered out of the museum and off to meet the boys (happy but also sad *the Picasso and the Monet exhibition were closed for refurbishment). But that would have been a fabulous bonus - we were there to see Jean Paul, and see him we did!